


Opalesce

by 10008



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Sburb/Sgrub Sessions, Dead Characters, Gen, Tags Are Hard, but they died before the story started?, does that count as major character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-31
Updated: 2016-01-31
Packaged: 2018-05-17 03:32:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5852404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/10008/pseuds/10008
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A thousand sweeps after the rebellion, Eridan Ampora returns to Alternia.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Opalesce

**Author's Note:**

> here is the deepest secret nobody knows  
> (here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud  
> and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows  
> higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)  
> and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart  
>  _\- Troll Edgar Allen Poe_

The path to her hive is familiar yet strange, a cherished, long forgotten memory.

The currents are the same, surely, the light levels ever-darkening in a gradient that could never be replicated on any thousand conquered worlds. Even the aquatic life that swims about is familiar, long-lost friends (enemies?) drifting by in a perpetual battle for survival.

And yet, it is achingly different.

A new fuchsia Heiress has yet to be hatched, and the once-familiar waters feel abandoned, like so much dust smothering an unused shelf. The children who inhabit the shallows nearby aren't stupid enough to wander near the depths; those who are are either herded away by their lusii or have disappeared, never to be seen again.

A rare occurrence for those of the royal caste, but not altogether uncommon.

At any rate, no one questions it.

And that's fine.

Really.

 

Her hive is a large, spiraling thing, auger-shaped and hopelessly empty, pink-tinged windows dull with a hundred sweeps of residue.

Her old respiteblock is just as she left it, save for the lack of cuttlefish in their long-abandoned cages. The tacky carpeting, the pink walls, the castles strewn all around, matching all of the faded-photo memories locked in the past.

One of her bangles sits where she'd left it on her desk, the night before she'd left Alternia for good.

_"For my successor to find!" she says enthusiastically. "So shell know that once, I was just like her!"_

Remnants of all her obsessions are scattered within these walls, cuttlefish food in sacks from six sweeps, eviscerated practice dummies from seven. Maps, strategies, contingency plans handwritten in rainbow-tinged squid ink on paper woven from kelp and seagrass, from when she was eight and wide eyed and thought she could do anything. Piles of metal parts and half-formed weapons from when she was a little less naive at nine.

 

"Hey, Fef."

_"You came! Oh Eridan, Mother's going to be so EXCITED to meet you! Come on!"_

"It's been a long time since we've last talked, hasn't it. A thousand sweeps, to the day."

_"Eridan, we're here for you. We're your fronds. Even if we get frustrated with you, we'll stick with you through a hundred sweeps, a thousand sweeps, however long you need us. I promise."_

"You promised me, a long time ago, that you'd stick by my side forever, if I needed it. Does that promise still hold?"

_"I'm shorey, Eridan. I can't do this anymore. I'm tired of feeling like I have to keep you in check. Moirails just isn't going to work."_

"I hope you're here. I really do. I just... I'm lonely. Really lonely. It's been so long since I've seen any of you. I know I have to go back, soon, but it's nice to just sit here and talk to you."

_"ERIDAN! YOU ARE LATE, YOU IDIOTIC PILE OF STEAMING HORSESHIT ON A NUTRITION PLAMMMRFGH!" "What Krabkat means is that he's glad you're here! But_ I _am very fishappointed that you're late!"_

"God, look at me, Fef, decorated officer of the fleet, complaining about his problems to the empty water in a wigglerhood friend's first hive. How'd I ever get this far without you? Without everyone? I miss them all, even if they were all landdwellers. I wanted them to be my crew, to be by my side as I explored the universe for you.”

_“Thank you. For joining me. For joining us. The others didn’t think you would come, you know.”_

"I just... I'm so tired of all this. All this world conquering and subjugating. Isn't that ironic? It used to be my dream, to be one of the Empire's best agents, commander of my own flotilla, destroyer of thousands of worlds. But now that I am, it's just... not what I thought it would be. Not at all. There's no glory in this, Fef. They lied to us, in the schoolfeeds. I'm tired of living this way, but I can't _do_ anything about it, and I'm tired of that too, and I just want to sit here forever and enjoy the peace and quiet of the ocean, why can't I just, just... I don't even know!"

_"I'm sorry, Eridan. I can't tell you, because... If I fail, none of us except you will have a future. You can claim that I forced you, as your moirail, and with a little work, you can have your dream of joining the Fleet. So... I can't let you get too involved."_

"And sometimes, I wonder, if I hadn't been scared to take the fall with you all. You don't know, Fef, you died before you ever saw what happened to them, didn't you? You didn't see what I did. They made me watch, and I had to _laugh_ at it all to prove myself. I have to laugh, Fef. They screamed and I laughed and I have to continue laughing, I can't ever stop, can't ever be quiet again, all because of a decision I made at 10 sweeps old but now all I want is quiet and I can't have even a moment of it because of all the screams and laughter. I want there not to be war, I want there not to be death, I want everything to just stop for a moment because that's the only way I'll get the peace I want, but I can't stop because then they'll kill me and I'm not ready for that yet. I need to move, I  _need_ to kill, I can't survive without it, I can't give it up... And I need to keep going, I'm the only one who remembers the truth, the history we made, and I can't be content until it's recorded, and even then... Are you content, Fef? Because I don't think I could be. And I know there's no point in hoping that one day I'll be ready to die, to join you. Because then I'll disappoint you. There's no hope for me, not anymore. I just... I hope there is for you."

_"Eridan, if everything turns out badly, promise me one thing. Promise me you'll remember me, not as just another failed Heiress, but as Feferi, and I think I'll be able to be happy."_

"So... this is for you, Fef. Everything has always been for you."

_"... Thank you, Eridan."_

 

She steps forward toward her destiny, and smiles.

 

((In the near future, Eridan Ampora returns to the fleet and to continue his conquest of a million worlds.))

((In the near future, Eridan Ampora dies with his eyes widened in shock.))

~~((A thousand sweeps wasted to a pointless war.))~~

 

((In a kinder universe, Feferi Peixes holds the throne, and, well before the world ends, Eridan Ampora dies with his eyes closed.))

 

((In another timeline, sweeps in the past, Eridan Ampora plays a game, destroys a world, creates a universe, and dooms the future of his entire species.))

((In another timeline, Eridan Ampora condemns Feferi Peixes to eternity drifting in the dreambubbles of the Furthest Ring.))

((In another timeline, Eridan Ampora meets one of the risen dead, and loses his own life.))

((In another timeline, Eridan Ampora awakens into a dream

                                 and smiles.))

 

"I hope you're happy, Fef."

_See you soon._

**Author's Note:**

> Opals are a non-crystalline form of hydrated silicon dioxide with a high amount of light diffraction. The signature iridescence of gemstone-grade opals arises from the diffraction and interference caused as light penetrates and reflects off their semi-transparent close-packed molecular structure. The effect allows [a single stone to display colors from all over the spectrum](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/10_7cts_Brazilian_Crystal_Opal.jpg).
> 
> Opalescence is a property found in its namesake lower quality, highly transparent opal stones, as well as other colloids with high dispersion. Specifically, it describes the [effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyndall_effect) where high wavelength light is diffracted while low wavelength light is allowed to pass through a material, causing it to appear blue when viewed perpendicular the the direction of light, and red-yellow when viewed in line with the light.


End file.
